ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601090024
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal-rights group, will move its headquarters from suburban Washington to Norfolk if a real estate deal goes through as planned.
``There are just still details to be worked out,'' PETA spokesman Dan Mathews said Friday.
The 15-year-old nonprofit organization, which is known for its flamboyant tactics, plans to hire about 30 people and move about 60 from its Rockville, Md., office this spring or summer, PETA spokesman Michael McGraw said.
Norfolk was chosen because of its affordability, proximity to airports and major highways, and central East Coast location, McGraw said. The organization claims a worldwide membership of 500,000.
McGraw said PETA focuses on ``the simple premise that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment.''
The group claims its high-profile protests and boycotts have had a major impact on businesses worldwide. The organization says it caused cosmetics company L'Oreal to halt animal testing of its products, American Airlines to stop serving pate de foie gras (made from the fattened livers of ducks and geese), Mobil Oil Corp. to cap exhaust stacks to protect birds and bats, and Wal-Mart to stop selling all pets except fish.
Local reaction to PETA's proposed move was low-key, even among some potential targets. The director of the Virginia Zoological Park refused to comment; a spokesman for Eastern Virginia Medical School said the institution, which uses monkeys, mice and other animals in laboratory tests, had no reaction to PETA's taking up a Norfolk address.
But a staff member at Old Dominion University's animal lab, who requested anonymity, said researchers there are concerned about possible PETA action against them. The organization's move to Norfolk was discussed recently by the school's animal use and care committee, he said.
Members of the Norfolk Police Department and the local FBI office, who spoke anonymously to The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, said they were monitoring PETA because of its connection to the Animal Liberation Front, which they described as a terrorist group accused of raiding medical research laboratories, destroying equipment and confiscating lab animals.
``Because of that connection and the animal research that is done in the Tidewater area, we will oversee its activities,'' a Norfolk police officer said.
PETA spokesman McGraw said the organization supports the Animal Liberation Front ``in spirit,'' but its own activities are nonviolent.
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